James Marusek

I had RNY gastric bypass surgery 3 years ago. I did not notice any hair loss. I believe that as your weight loss phase comes to an end and you transition into the maintenance phase, this hair loss should come to an end and you should experience a regrowth. In my case I transitioned at month 7. Some sleeve patients lose weight at a slower pace and transition up to 2 years after surgery. But this also varies by individual and the amount of weight that someone has to lose. So everyone is different. I used a supplement called Juvenon for many years before and after surgery. It can be purchased on the internet. I suspect this product helped to keep my hair from falling out. The reason why I say this is because I am now 68 years old and about a decade ago long before my weight loss surgery, I was starting to go bald. I began using this product. This supplement stopped that and also gave a little color back to my hair which was turning white at the time.

Congratulations on your upcoming surgery. Since you are at the beginning of this process, I would recommend three things. 1. Take a good before photograph of yourself, so that you have something to compare to after surgery. Many times we are blind to our obesity. We do not see ourselves. Therefore when the weight begins to drop off rather dramatically, we question if this is really happening. Photographs are a good visualization of our success. Many people carry a before and after photo with them, just to remind themselves of their success. 2. Walk 30 minutes each day, every day until surgery (or equivalent exercise). Walking helps the recovery process go smoothly and minimized the pain levels from surgery. 3. Wean yourself from caffeine and carbonated beverages now. After I gave up my 6 diet coke a day habit, I suffered from a week of severe withdrawal syndrome consisting of severe headaches and body aches. I was miserable. You don't want to combine the effects of caffeine withdrawal with the effects of surgery.

When I wrote this I said these accidents "may have been due" to sleep apnea. Blaming sleep apnea may be a "deflect the blame" tactic. There are many components of sleep apnea. Snoring is one and dozing off is another. My family noticed that I was sometimes dozing off when I was with my family. In part, there was a voluntary component to this. If the conversation was not interesting, I might allow myself to relax and doze off. But when I was driving, this never happened because I was very focused on driving and stimulating my senses to prevent this from happening. Sometimes when it was cold I would even open the window to allow fresh cold biting wind to energize me, or I might tap my foot, or listen to the beat of music. I would fight the impulse. So I think that it is too simplistic to blame sleep apnea on these accidents without laying some of the blame on the train conductor. If he needed help to stay alert, it was his responsibility to seek that help and resolve the issue prior to the accident.

I am over 3 years post-op RNY gastric bypass surgery. Because of this type of surgery, I take many more Vitamins than a patient that has undergone sleeve surgery. After surgery I found that I could no longer swallow large pills. This made taking vitamins a difficult challenge. This condition lasted about 2 months and then I was able to swallow again. Vitamins should not all be taken at once. They need to be spaced out throughout the day otherwise they are not absorbed properly. There should also be a time separation of at least 2 hours between Iron supplements (as found in multivitamins) and calcium supplements. They should not be taken together. I do not swallow all my vitamins at once. I do not fill my mouth with 3 vitamins and then drink Water. I do these one at a time. In my case because I have so many to take, I use the following approach. I place all my calciums in a small glass bowl each morning. These I take throughout the day a couple hours apart. All the other vitamins I divide into two weekly pill containers. One for the early morning and one for the late evening just before bedtime. Since these are weekly containers (14 small compartments), the fill covers a two week period for each container.

There is a saying "Never trust a fart." After RNY gastric bypass surgery, I fart perhaps twice as much post surgery as pre-surgery. This is especially bad in the beginning. For the first few weeks after surgery, this was sometimes more than just a fart. Therefore it is probably not a bad idea to have an extra change of underwear, just in case. But this particular phase does not last long and then your farts turn back into farts.

Congratulations on getting over that problem. Hopefully everything will be downhill from here.

Congratulations.

It will get better over time but not overnight. It took me 6 months until I reached my happy state when all the problems seemed to melt away.

Congratulations.

I had RNY surgery and I transitioned into the Maintenance phase at 7 months. Sleeve patients are different. They lose weight at a slower rate. But they often lose weight over a longer period of time, sometimes 2 years. One thing to do now at this stage is to assess your Protein intake. Your protein requirement is met by a combination of the protein from your meals combined with the protein from your supplements (Protein shakes, protein bars). Since your meal volume is beginning to increase, that also means that the amount of protein from meals is increasing, especially if you concentrate on consuming high protein meals. Therefore you could be able to reduce your reliance on supplements and the calories they contain. I went from 3 protein shakes a day, down to 2, then 1 and finally zero when my meal volume increased to 1 cup per meal at a year and a half. This allowed me to break the few stalls that I encountered.

I did not feel that the seasons played any role in my surgery with only one exception. That was because the process is long and could spread out over two calendar years and therefore from an insurance perspective I might have to meet my health deductible for each of those years before my health insurance covered the bills. I found that the day of the week in which the surgery was scheduled was somewhat important. Friday is a bad day for scheduling the surgery because it meant that the hospital stay was over the weekend. Many surgeons take the weekend off and the staff at the hospital often is manned differently over the weekend. It is best to have the surgery and hospital stay during the weekdays.

I had RNY gastric bypass surgery over 3 years ago. I had sleep apnea prior to surgery. I snored so loud that it keep my wife awake many nights. A few weeks after surgery, this problem went away. I would wake up in the middle of the night and find my wife hovering over me. I was sleeping so quiet that my wife thought I passed away and she was trying to detect if I was still breathing. It is no longer a problem for me.

I was about an hour and a half away from home and the ride back from the hospital did not bother me. One thing I had to do on the way home was stop at the pharmacy in order to purchase the prescription drugs I needed after the operation. This took about an hour of standing in line. So you might be prepared for this.

Good luck on your surgery. Before surgery I was always focused on food but not afterward. You will be surprised by how little food you will eat in the few months right after surgery. Also your taste buds may change dramatically. So this is one case where you may not want to be too prepared.

The three most important elements after RNY gastric bypass surgery are to meet your daily Protein, Fluid and Vitamin requirements. food is secondary because your body is converting your stored fat into the energy that drives your body. Thus you lose weight. Weight loss is achieved after surgery through meal volume control. You begin at 2 ounces (1/4 cup) per meal and gradually over the next year and a half increase the volume to 1 cup per meal. With this minuscule amount of food, it is next to impossible to meet your protein daily requirements by food alone, so therefore you need to rely on supplements such as Protein shakes. After RNY gastric bypass surgery, the part of your stomach that normally process fats and sugars has been cut away and consuming high amounts of these two food types can lead to dumping syndrome. After about a year, your intestines will figure out something is wrong and step in and fill the gap. This will allow you to consume fats and sugars again. But it is best to follow the plan guidelines for food types and meal volume during the Weight Loss phase. You will transition into the Maintenance phase soon enough and you want to maximize your weight loss during the Weight Loss phase.

The three most important elements after RNY gastric bypass surgery are to meet your daily Protein, Fluid and Vitamin requirements. food is secondary because your body is converting your stored fat into the energy that drives your body. Thus you lose weight. It is important to follow the plan guidelines on food. Your stomach in the beginning is in a major heal mode. It needs time to recover and heal itself. If you transition to quickly from liquids to pureed to solids you may damage this healing process and regret it. I know you are tempted and so was I, but it really is best to adhere to the guidelines.

It is important to walk around 30 minutes per day before and after surgery. I began walking every day around a year prior to surgery. Immediately after my operation, I was walking the hallways every two hours around the clock and I continued to exercise every day for the first year after surgery. Walking improves your recovery time and also minimizes the level of pain you will endure from the operation.

Meet both requirements. If you are not getting enough Protein from your foods than add in more protein shakes. Weight loss is achieved after surgery through meal volume control. You begin at 2 ounces (1/4 cup) per meal and gradually over the next year and a half increase the volume to 1 cup per meal. With this minuscule amount of food, it is next to impossible to meet your protein daily requirements by food alone, so therefore you need to rely on supplements such as protein shakes. I went from 3 protein shakes a day, down to 2, then 1 and finally zero when my meal volume increased to 1 cup per meal at a year and a half. I had RNY gastric bypass surgery where you had a sleeve. So your guidance might be a bit different on meal volume.

Congratulations.

There are many pre-triggers to dumping syndrome including the formation of excess mucous, hiccups, sneezing, the change in the way food taste. These are signals that your stomach is full and one more bite and you will be in full scale dumping syndrome which can manifest as stomach pains, nausea and vomiting and several other symptoms. But being only 3 days post-op I suspect that this is not your problem. The pre-triggers seemed like they appeared after I transitioned into the solid food stage. It might be a cold. After I had my RNY surgery, I became lactose intolerant. So when I drank milk, it lead quickly to stomach pains and a quick trip to the bathroom with diarrhea. This condition lasted for around 2 months and then disappeared. Some Protein shakes contain lactose, and sometimes Protein shake powder is blended with milk, so if you have these symptoms, you might forego anything with lactose for awhile.

I agree with @@laceemouse that gum is restricted post-op but that is not the case pre-op.

I am not sure that I have an answer to your question. FMLA is a separate program from sick leave. Normally doctor's notes are accepted for sick leave (paid leave). I do not think FLMA approves leave. They provide a guideline by which Family & Medical Leave (which is unpaid leave) may be taken. These guidelines state that the leave may be taken for: * for the birth and care of the newborn child of an employee; * for placement with the employee of a child for adoption or foster care; * to care for an immediate family member (spouse, child, or parent) with a serious health condition; or * to take medical leave when the employee is unable to work because of a serious health condition. https://www.dol.gov/general/topic/benefits-leave/fmla Generally going through this process I underwent many visits to doctors. These included initial consultation, visit with the psychologist, several visits to meet the insurance requirement for a six month medically supervised weight loss program, pre-op physicals, second round of pre-op physicals, a half day of classes, the surgery, post-op visits. So I think that the time you need for meeting the majority of pre-op requirements would be using sick leave. But the operation and recovery period could be covered by FLMA. In your case it would be important to minimize the number of long trips in the pre-op stage and try to do this locally. In my case my insurance did not want to cover the expense for going to see the doctor for the six month medically supervised weight loss program anyways, so this might be out of your pocket whether you go in state or out of state.

Just around the corner. Good luck on your surgery. At your stage I would recommend 3 things. 1. Take a good before photograph of yourself, so that you have something to compare to after surgery. Many times we are blind to our obesity. We do not see ourselves. Therefore when the weight begins to drop off rather dramatically, we question if this is really happening. Photographs are a good visualization of our success. Many people carry a before and after photo with them, just to remind themselves of their success. 2. Walk 30 minutes each day, every day until surgery (or equivalent exercise). Walking helps the recovery process go smoothly and minimized the pain levels from surgery. 3. Wean yourself from caffeine and carbonated beverages now. After I gave up my 6 diet coke a day habit, I suffered from a week of severe withdrawal syndrome consisting of severe headaches and body aches. I was miserable. You don't want to combine the effects of caffeine withdrawal with the effects of surgery.

Sounds like a good goal.

There are many different formulations of Protein shakes. Individuals sometimes find that they taste terrible. The important thing is to try a variety until you can find one you can tolerate. I found that Muscle Milk Light (vanilla Creme) powder blended with Water and a half a banana worked best. I used a Ninja blender with a single serving cup to mix the Protein shake. Others found that a completely different formulation such as premixed Isopure worked for them. Some have found that adding protein powder to their foods worked for them. Past threads talked about a protein powder that had no smell or taste. Sorry but I forgot the brand name. If all else fails then try fortified milk. 32 ounces of 1% milk plus 1 cup of dry milk provides 56 grams of protein. Also be prepared to experiment after surgery. Many patients find that their taste buds changed dramatically after surgery.